Published: 16:57, October 10, 2024 | Updated: 17:08, October 10, 2024
Parental leave, tax allowance floated to boost HK women’s participation in workforce
By Stephy Zhang in Hong Kong
Commuters walk inside the Central subway station of Hong Kong on April 4, 2024. (SHAMIM ASHRAF / CHINA DAILY)

The government is being urged to introduce paid parental leave, a tax allowance for working mothers, flexible working hours for parents, and a boost to childcare services in a bid to encourage women to join the workforce, a survey released on Thursday revealed.

The survey, conducted by The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, indicates (respectively) that 65 percent and 45 percent of 631 respondents believe that flexible working hours for parents and parental leave can assist women in employment.

Among those polled, 493 are parents.

The top three policy initiatives favored by polled mothers are the supply of childcare services, flexible working hours and a tax allowance for working parents, the survey revealed.

Among respondents aged 25 to 55 with children, 63.14 percent identified mothers as the primary caregivers during the day for under 3 years old.

In the meantime, 80 percent of stay-at-home mothers expressed their willingness to work if there were suitable job opportunities and support services available.

Pedestrians wait their turn to cross a road in Central, Hong Kong, on Jan 8, 2024. (GARY CHIU / CHINA DAILY)

The federation said Hong Kong, with the lowest birth rate in Asia, logged a labor participation rate of 52.2 percent for women, which is lower than the 65.2 percent in Macao and 62.6 percent in Singapore.

The government rolled out a raft of measures to boost the fertility rate in its last Policy Address, including a one-off bonus of HK$20,000 ($2,574) for newborns. Yet these measures have failed to significantly increase the birth rate, it added.

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Lawmaker Michael Luk Chung-hung, a representative from the FTU Women Affairs Committee, said that many women are forced to give up their careers, resulting in a loss to the workforce, due to the pressure of having to handle their jobs while taking care of their families.

Luk recommended that the government take a more proactive approach in promoting family-friendly policies, including implementing parental leave to set an example for the private sector and exploring options of paid parental leave in future.

The survey also revealed that 78.7 percent of the polled parents said they didn’t use the childcare services.

The March 20, 2024 photo shows the office buildings and apartment buildings on Hong Kong Island. (J. LU / CHINA DAILY)

The reasons for the low usage of childcare services include a lack of awareness about community childcare services (35.6 percent), insufficient government-subsidized childcare spots leading to long waiting times (21.1 percent), lack of services in their residential areas (20.9 percent), and inconvenient operating hours of childcare services (16.5 percent).

Ching Ngon-lai, vice-president of the FTU, highlighted the importance of the locations and operating hours of childcare services as critical factors in the decision-making.

She suggested that the government should increase the provision of childcare services based on population growth rates and take on the responsibility of promoting awareness of these services.

Apart from the childcare services provided, the city also provides community nannies, who are volunteers trained by the city’s NGOs to help take care of young kids ranging from newborns to primary school pupils, at low cost.  

Winnie Hung Mei-yung, also from the FTU, noted the concerns raised by many stay-at-home mothers regarding the varying quality of community caretakers, which affects their confidence in utilizing such services.

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Hung recommended enhancing the training programs for community caretakers, drawing inspiration from neighboring cities like Singapore that offer standardized training programs.

stephyzhang@chinadailyhk.com